Sorry these updates are taking so long. Here it is Wednesday and I’m just now writing about last weekend…

Saturday morning, later than hoped but earlier than expected, we headed for Star Of The River. The trike sits low to the ground and the bumper and trailer hitch are the lowest point when the front wheel is on the stinger, a hitch made to carry the front wheel of a trike so that the trike can be towed like a trailer. Sitting still, it was only an inch or so off the ground. Every bump, intersection or driveway forced hard contact between the hitch and the ground. Mere blocks from home, the reinforcing ring around the receiver had been knocked loose, held now only by the top edge. *My* welds attaching the hitch to the bumper held. The Chinese welds on the hitch did not. One point for the home team.

The dirt roads leading into the site were often sand, but usually crushed stone, about 2″ chunks. The tire ruts meant that the higher center of the road spent maybe 60-70% of the time in contact with the hitch. There was not much to be done about it.

Everyone liked the trike; though some questioned why I would make it so complex, put so much *stuff* on it to fail. Shrug. Hey, it’s my hobby. How do you expect to have road stories if your trike runs 100% of the time?!?!

So, on Saturday and Sunday, I was able to putt around the campsite a little, gave a couple of rides. I was careful to park where I could pull forward to leave as often as possible, for reverse was unobtainable. Third seemed the best bet in most instances.

Due to the condition of the roads, I took it all the way up past the bad stuff, nearly to the highway and parked it there. Gabby took me back down to the truck, where we finished up our packing, then headed out, me on Sponge Bob Square Trike. We stopped at the gate, loaded the Dragon on the stinger and headed for home.

Monday afternoon, after Gabby went to work (no such thing as a holiday there), I tore into reworking the shifter.

My original plan was to cut off the old shifter hanger and replace it with a new one I picked up long ago, then reinstall the shaft with new bushings.

I even got so far as to repair the cuts before two things stopped me.

First, I actually would need two shifter hangers because the builders put in two in a row to proper support the shaft before the first U-joint. Second, the U-joints they used, even if I dressed the welds down, would not fit through the bushings.

 I decided instead to install the shaft and tighten the rings down to eliminate the clearance.

Yes, this makes it a metal on metal sliding contact and it won’t last forever, no matter how well I remember to maintain it.

Still, and I’m sure anyone would agree, that it is WAY better than the way it was.

Another shifting problem is the tendancy of the shifter assembly to flex on it’s single supporting rod, so I added a piece of quarter inch round rod as a brace. I then found that it would then flex in only one axis, so I added another to lock it in three dimensions.

As an aside, I have decided that I definitely prefer gas welding over wire welding. There’s no spatter and very little residue, unless you didn’t clean the metal well before you started. The puddle is easier to control, for me anyway.

Even after these mods, it was still hard to reach 1st and 3rd. I found that there was some previously unnoticed interference between the frame and the coupler on the shaft going in the nose of the transaxle.

This is the clearance before I cut away a little more of the plate.

After the cut, still rough. Sorry, I didn’t take any more pictures after a cleaned it up!

This cleared the way for all four gears and reverse with little or no difficulty shifting.

Well, some difficulty. In reading about shifting troubles, one of the symptoms of clutch disengagement problems is to sit in neutral, idling, with the clutch out. Push the clutch in, count to 3 or even 5, move the shift lever. Any gear grinding at this point indicates that the clutch is not fully disengaging. I do have a bit of that. It’s much easier to downshift while still rolling; not so easy at a full stop.

I remember that the input shaft to the transaxle had a substantial amount of play in it. I could see how the clutch disc might “droop” down, allowing the top edge to contact some moving parts, even with the pressure plate disengaged.

Well, I will have a chance to investigate sooner than later.

With the trike streetable, I rode out to meet Gabby when she got off work. On the way there, I played with acceleration (which it does quite well, once past a bad hesitation off idle) and verified the speedometer against my GPS. I got to her office early enough to have to wait for a little while. There really is not a comfortable place to sit on the trike except the driver seat, not for me anyway. My…ummm…  manparts are quite crowded if I sit in the back seat. Also, since I have still not put the steps in place, my feet and legs hang, putting that much more pressure *there*. I did find a compromise that works for a short wait, perching kind of on the side of rear seat.

On the way home, I played a bit with speed, dropping back, catching up and dropping back again. Then, as we approached a particular intersection about 1/3 of the way home, I was trying to downshift and I suddenly got a continuous grind, whether or not the clutch was in. I shut off the engine, found neutral and restarted the engine; still grinding. I ended up pushing the clutch way too hard and apparently unseated the throwout bearing, for the clutch pedal lost all feedback. The grinding continued. I shut the engine off and found that, except for neural, any gear I put it in would grind when I moved the trike manually. Definitely *something* up in the transaxle.

Gabby went on home to get the truck and stinger and we got the trike home with little more difficulty. I was even able to push it up our steep driveway (with a running start) on the first try.

I priced rebuilding and/or replacing this transaxle, and while $450-500 seems reasonable compared to other transmission work I’ve had done, $150 for a good used one on Craigslist is even better. I should be picking it up tomorrow or Friday.

I’m home sick today. What I thought were allergies hitting me Sunday night after we got home has become an upper respiratory infection or some such. I crashed on the couch about 6:30 Tuesday night, moved to the bed about midnight and slept till about 11AM today. I even cat-napped a couple times before Gabby served a wonderful Asian style salad with blackened salmon for lunch. That was the boost I needed to get in here and write this up!

Over the next day or two, I will be pulling the old transaxle out so that I can put the replacement in as soon as possible after I get it. I really hope to be back on the road for tuning for the weekend.